World Population now exceeds 6.6 billion

I’m seeing in a number of places that the current world population–now reported by Worldwatch Institute in an e-mail newsletter to exceed 6.6 billion people–is unsustainable. The UN explains, however, that the archetypal image of overpopulation–in Asian nations like India and China which are not so poor anymore–misses a discrepancy in impacts at various levels of prosperity. “The ecological footprint of an average person in a high-income country is about six times bigger than that of someone in a low-income country, and many more times bigger than in the least-developed countries . . . [while] 2.8 billion people—two in five—still struggle to survive on less than $2 a day.”

It is also the poor who often have the least access to sustainable technology. Having only recently developed this technology, capitalists seek a return on their investments, set high prices, and make sustainability a luxury.

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